Broke Olympians Turning to Porn, Viral Break Dancer Proves PhD Scam, The Word "Suicide" Erased from Kurt Cobain Narrative?!, Post Malone Goes Country (The Five for 08/16/24)
Plus, Star Wars rips off Stranger Things. Pitt & Clooney together again. 90's alt-rock legends creating a buzz 35 years after their debut.
Hey, welcome to The Five, a publication about the stories that matter.
A few quick notes:
A). I just re-started the podcast, which drops on Wednesdays. If you missed the last one, this interview with a journalist who dug into the 1990’s most high profile murder, is getting good feedback from the community.
B). The Friday edition now includes book recommendations in the pop culture roundup.
C). New music is now an audio snippet from me sharing my thoughts on recent releases…again, in the pop culture round.
Now, let’s dive into Culture & Commentary.
[one]
Well, apparently we’re back to that 2016 thing where people split with their family and friends over politics.
Up first, a father of the year candidate with the moral uprightness of a jellyfish who is seeking international fame at the expense of his son.
From The Guardian:
I’ve never been a macho kind of man. To me, our biggest responsibility as humans is to look after each other. Men have been given places of privilege in society, so when people talk about being a man, to me that means: what do you use your privilege for? I worked at a pirate radio station in Houston, and we helped with emergency efforts during Tropical Storm Allison in 2001. For me, manhood is all about using your energy to make life better for the person next to you.
But I think that Trump appeals to a perceived loss of masculine power: by his logic, because we’re treating LGBTQ+ people like humans, some men feel a loss over that, as their outrageous privilege has diminished somewhat, at least on surface level. Nick was vulnerable to that because he was becoming a man. I think he also naively thought, well, Trump’s a powerful person running for president; he can’t just get up there and spew bullshit.
Nick and I would get into arguments at the dinner table over things like immigration. He would say that there’s this invasion of people coming across the border, but I could usually move him when I got into the emotional, human thing. When I showed him photos of families being separated from their babies because of the Trump administration, he couldn’t tolerate that. Sometimes he might say, “Oh, that’s a doctored photo,” but I could see on his face that the photos had an effect.
Let me jump in right there:
A). Armchair quaterbacking it, Nick doesn’t respect his dad…because his dad has no spine. I can name dozens and dozens of male personalities on the political left that portray MUCH more masculinity in their values than the author of this piece. NYU Prof and serial entrepreneurs Scott Galloway comes to mind, as does Sebastian Junger, one of my favorite authors (Into the Wild, The Perfect Storm).
Hey Nick’s Dad. Nick doesn’t respect you because you secretly don’t respect or like yourself. And you obviously care more about public attention than your son, given that you’re happy to use your real name and story on the internet…in a story in which you throw your son under the bus. I wondered if this was a pseudonym…nope, the author doesn’t even lock down his Facebook page, and shared the story as his most recent post. (And no, it’s not doxxing to link to the first entry if you Google someone’s name and their open social media is the first thing that pops up. Sam is even wearing the same hat as in the Guardian photo.
B). Trump’s “mistreatment of LGBTQ+” people? You mean the first incoming President to support gay marriage?
Sam…doesn’t appear to deal in reality.
Just throwing this out there, Sam…do you think maybe your son has a tough relationship with you, not because of your differences in politics, but because he’s probably humiliated that you didn’t consider his reaction when publishing this piece…and that might be a sign that you’ve always valued your own reputation over your relationship?
Elsewhere, professional internet person Tana Mongeau (don’t worry, I have no idea who she is either—just trust that she’s popular with a segment of the population) kicked her best friend Brook Schofield off their shared podcast, and essentially vowed to hate Brook forever, due to some old jokes (and Trump support) that had been unearthed in Brooke’s old tweets.
"I have no right to forgive her as a white person for the things she said," Tana said, expressing regret for initially standing by Brooke.
The only problem? In 2020, legitimately racist material surfaced with Tana using the N-word, mocking Cuban immigrants and other content that’s MUCH worse than the relatively mild jokes that Tana can “never forgive Brooke for. (Full breakdown of Tana’s racist comments here).
Both of these examples come from the political left, but the political right can be just as extreme when it comes to cutting off friends and family.
As I wrote last week, a political party is a pretty bad substitute for God…and during election years, we see more people who cannot deviate from their political religion, even when it means making “relational human sacrifices” of cutting off their friends.
And even their children. Barbaric. Stupid. And choices they will live to regret.
[two]
Remember those Olympics that were just on? Turns out they destroy the athletes financially…and some are taking desperate measures to make ends meet.
Dire financial straits are leading droves of Olympic athletes to sell images of their bodies to subscribers on OnlyFans — known for sexually explicit content — to sustain their dreams of gold at the Games. As they struggle to make ends meet, a spotlight is being cast on an Olympics funding system that watchdog groups condemn as "broken," claiming most athletes "can barely pay their rent."
The Olympics, the world's biggest sporting stage, bring in billions of dollars in TV rights, ticket sales and sponsorship, but most athletes must fend for themselves financially.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) did not express concern about the situation. When asked by The Associated Press about athletes turning to OnlyFans, IOC spokesman Mark Adams said, "I would assume that athletes, like all citizens, are allowed to do what they can."
Watching his sponsorships dry up and facing mounting costs, Jack Laugher was among the pantheon of Olympic athletes using the often-controversial platform to get to the Games — or simply survive.
After medaling at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Laugher, who scored another bronze in Paris last week for the U.K., said he was waiting for funding that never materialized. His account, costing $10 a month for a subscription, says he posts "SFW (safe for work) content in Speedos, briefs, boxers." A recent post from the Olympics got more than 1,400 likes.
"For me, it's been an absolute lifeline," he said, before he was whisked away mid-interview by a British team official, underscoring the sensitivity of the issue.
The AP spoke to multiple current and former Olympians who painted a sobering portrait of what they had to do — and bare — to get to Paris.
Laugher, and other current and former Olympians — rower Robbie Manson (New Zealand), pole vaulter Alysha Newman (Canada), divers Timo Barthel (Germany), Diego Belleza Isaias (Mexico) and Matthew Mitcham (Australia), the first openly gay Olympic gold medallist — found a measure of financial stability in OnlyFans that other funding failed to provide.
Unable to secure traditional sponsorships, Mitcham began posting photos on OnlyFans, including semi-frontal nudes, earning triple the amount he received as a top athlete.
[three]
At this point, there’s no need to explain horrific Australian break dancer Rachel Gunn at the Olympics, but the story of how she got there…and how it revels scams within higher ed, is worth unpacking.
From Autism Capital on Twitter:
The Olympics outsourced the breakdancing qualifications to a third party called the WorldDance Sport Federation who didn’t know anything about breakdancing, they wanted to do Ballroom Dancing.
The Olympics said NO to Ballroom, so WorldDance said FINE we’ll oversee Breakdancing instead. WorldDance didn’t know anything about Breakdancing so THEY outsourced to other smaller orgs local to the country, in the case of Australia, an organization called the Australian Breaking Association which was FOUNDED by Raygun and her husband.
Who advised them to partner with this org? Rachael Gunn. Starting to see it? The Australian Breaking Association (AusBreak) runs a competition every year that only has 10-15 women show up, and obviously Rachael “wins” this and her husband becomes the team coach. Basically, Rachael elects herself as the Australian Olympic breakdancing rep, and the rest history. A nice fat 0 for the history books.
She got to the Olympics because no one was paying attention, and because she held a truly worthless PhD in “movement and cultural studies,” which is only good for getting last in the Olympics, apparently.
It’s not just a phenomenon in Australia…plenty of “top tier” American colleges offer degrees in absolute dribble as well, like these students at NYU:
A transcription of the YouTube Video:
My name is Lax and my concentration is the performance of self. Hi, I'm Gabrielle and my concentration is creative direction, production, and narrative through the arts, um, performance, and written work.
Hi, my name is Karina Gomes and my concentration is in journalism and Latin American studies with an emphasis in human rights, collective memory and political violence. Hi, my name is Stephanie Lee and I studied the sociology of environmental communication. Hi, my name is Reed and I study music business and gender studies.
Hi, my name is Dominique and I studied care politics with a minor in disability studies. My name is Elliot Wright and my concentration is art as a social mechanism. Hi. Hi, I'm Georgia, and my concentration is Dramatic Writing and Theatrical Adaptation. My name is Noah Loyokano, and my concentration is Equilibrium or Negotiated Paradox.
Hi, my name is Sophie Lopez, and my concentration is titled Queering and Decolonizing Theater Practice.
Hi, my name is Maya, and my concentration is Journalism, Postcolonial Studies, and Psychoanalysis.
It’s NYU, so I suppose a fair number of these students come from rich households where their parents are going to set them up to not actually need the income from their jobs…but the idea of putting students into debt for “studying” made up crap where there are no actual jobs…is abhorrent.
It’s probably tempting to run to the other side of the extreme and just tell all 18-year-olds to be tech founders and entrepreneurs, but as Scott Galloway points out in The Algebra of Wealth, the most stable track to prosperity is still a good-paying corporate job and a steady investing schedule over decades. And that’s going to require a college degree (and probably an MBA—free plug, my own alma mater offers a 12 month MBA for $12K, which is easily recouped with a single promotion in the corporate space).
But the worst of all possible worlds is to have the debt, but no skill set to prosper.
Rachel Gunn, as a dancer, is a meme.
Rachel Gunn as a PhD prof, with a worthless degree, teaching other students to earn a worthless degree, when there is no job market, is a pyramid scheme.
[four]
The late Kurt Cobain is at the center of a controversy around the word “suicide” being deleted from the vocabulary, apparently.
From Billboard:
An exhibition at Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture has sparked a heated conversation about the real-life use of the internet slang term “un-alived,” which was spotted on a MoPOP placard that says Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain “un-alived himself at 27.”
Cobain died by suicide at age 27, on April 8, 1994. The Seattle museum shared this fact on an information card about the “27 Club” (a grouping of artists who all tragically passed away at the young age of 27), various patrons have reported.
But in place of “died by suicide,” MoPOP printed the internet slang “un-alived,” with the exhibition placard reading, “Kurt Cobain un-alived himself at 27.” The museum additionally put up a placard about the social context of the term’s usage in the digital age, also noting that “the Guest Curator has chosen to utilize the term as a gesture of respect towards those who have tragically lost their lives due to mental health struggles.”
On Saturday (Aug. 10), Stereogum pointed out many on social media were likening saying the word “un-alived” in real-life discussions regarding mental health — rather than using it only to circumvent censorship from algorithms on online platforms like TikTok — to the dystopian world of George Orwell’s 1984, despite the museum’s explanation.
Orwell wrote of “Newspeak,” a simplified, government-directed language intended to limit critical thinking, in the novel. One element of the fictional Newspeak grammar included tagging the simple prefix “un” onto words, instead of developing an expanded vocabulary.
The context is important here. If social media users have something important to say, such as an anti-suicide message or covering a high profile suicide, “un-alived” may be the only way to convey the message and get past social media algorithms.
But adopting slang for a museum, even a pop culture museum, is stupid. And yeah, 1984 vibes.
Suicide is a horrible thing, and a difficult topic. But we should not trivialize it by utilizing a silly slang word.
[five]
As always, let’s head into the weekend with a pop culture roundup.
I’m still not shutting up about how much better season 2 of Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power looks. The latest trailer that dropped this week is again, excellent. “I am the one keeping the storm at bay” and “At this moment of our age is now being written” feel much more authentic to Tolkein than…whatever happened in season 1.
Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy, Glass Onion) and Jason Momoa (Justice League, Game of Thrones) are teaming up for The Wrecking Crew, an action/mystery in which two estranged half brothers must come together to investigate their father’s untimely death. Cool.
Anthony Bourdain (of No Reservations) fame is on the way.
Hysteria stars Julie Bowen (Modern Family, Happy Gilmore) as an 80’s mom during the “Satanic Panic.” Also, there’s a metal band. And a dead high school football player or something. Look, they’re ripping off Stranger Things pretty hard on the aesthetics, but it looks cool and fun. On Peacock this October (trailer).
Speaking of ripping of Stranger Things…add Star Wars to the list of things that have ripped off Stranger Things. To be fair, they’re also ripping off Stand By Me and Goonies too. Which is cool, as long as it’s not terrible. Spiderman director Jon Watts running show show is a good thing, probably. (Trailer).
Clooney. Pitt. Together again. As assassins. Or mob guys…or something. Looks dope. One week run in theaters starting 09/20 (to be eligible for awards season), then on Apple TV+ 09/27.
The Old Man had a heck of a first season back in 2022. Although it failed to become a mega-hit, the novel-turned-show found a strong fan base of people like me who will pretty much watch anything in the sub-category of stuff-that-is-pretty-much-like-John-Wick.
Rebel Ridge looks like one of the best Netflix originals this year, and deals with an important topic, according to Reason Magazine:
The outrageous practice of civil asset forfeiture—which allows police to seize property on the mere suspicion of a crime—is getting its moment in the spotlight in Rebel Ridge, an upcoming Netflix action movie starring Aaron Pierre and Don Johnson.
This movie looks like a spiritual successor to Rambo: First Blood and Walking Tall, and deals with an issue that needs much more attention.
Streaming Labor Day weekend.
[new music]
Starting something new with the music feature…I’ll be briefly commenting on/reviewing new music via a brief audio snippet each week. Check out this week’s album’s, and my commentary by clicking play below.
Post Malone-F1 Trillion: Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube Music
Smashing Pumpkins-Aghori Mhori Mei: Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube Music
Pony Bradshaw-Thus Spoke the Fool: Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube Music
[read & learn]
I met Nat Eliason at something or other long before he was a major player in the cryptocurrency game (not to mention a multi-millionaire from magic internet data money). His book Crypto Confidential reads like a legal thriller. It sounds strange to say a book about “magic internet data money” is exciting, but this is a heck of a ride.
If you’re interested in crypto as an idea but don’t know much about it, I’d recommend The Truth About Crypto, written by a traditional wealth manager.
Former Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy discussing the election with NYC hip hop morning show The Breakfast Club is the best interview/smartest political discussion I heard this week…well, mostly. There was a little bit of stupid.
But, this is the kind of civil discourse from differing viewpoints we need more of.
Until the next one,
-sth